Tuesday, September 22, 2015

As many of you read in my post Aerials, Aerials,Aerials!!!!, I had recently received a great series of aerials with
identification and was thrilled to share the find with our constant
readership.Well, as supreme luck would
have it, the donor contacted me to ask if I would like “any more.”We discussed Donald’s work, what he took
pictures of and the years he was active and based on that info I made an
appointment to acquire this next set of images.When they were delivered I was shocked to find a full run of color
positive images (opposite of negative images), with associated release
statements and signatures.This is
wonderful.It means not only do we have
the images, but we also have the signatures of the people in the images giving
permission to use the images in a public manner (for instance, for promotional
materials, reports, etc.).Since some of
these images contain views of patients being treated, having those releases is
critical to providing open and responsible access to the records.

Not only did I get a lot of positives, but I also received a
substantial amount of slides, all numbered and all related to another series of
release forms and receipts.This is like
an archival gold mine, in that not only does it include the “good stuff” but it also
includes the documentation of its creation, which allows us to more fully
understand many aspects of the materials’ conditions for creation.Having the releases with the images reduces
the risk archives take on when providing access to materials that, have over
the course of time, lost many supporting documents which cover things like
intellectual property rights, reproduction rights and conditions and subject
content.In this collection all of those
items, or aspects, were preserved.This
will lead to a very high level of utility, especially in linking subjects with
names of innovators and practitioners in various fields, especially useful
because Donald shot images for all of the schools and we see that in the spread
of topics he covered during his time with OHSU’s predecessor institutions.

Release forms including shoot numbers

I called this an accrual, although *technically* it came in in the same time period as the first few items, ergo it will be one collection with one accession number (a control number we use to manage assets/materials/collections). This does highlight the occasional nature of acquisition in archives by which materials are rarely packaged in one shipment with all of the pertinent information, rather they come in fits and starts, sometimes trickling in as they are discovered by the donor or department transferring the materials to us. Here are some samples of the scanned positive images:

Life Flight

Fluid on the tip of a needle

These materials are available for research, just give us a call and we can provide access!